The Penn State board of trustees meet this week in Scranton, and it is going to get a lot more attention than it usually receives for a typical July board meeting.

Those inside and outside Penn State are waiting to see if the trustees will release the report of the university’s internal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

View full sizeAlex Brandon, The Associated Press, 2011Former FBI Director Louis Freeh's report, which will examine who was responsible for covering up the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, what policies contributed to it and what corrective measures are needed to ensure that it never repeats, could be ready by mid- to late-July, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said.

There are clear signs that the report from former FBI Director Louis Freeh is coming soon.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson said the document could be ready as early as mid- to late July. The trustees meet Thursday and Friday at Penn State’s Scranton campus.

The investigative team working for Freeh that once filled a former day care center near Old Main on the State College campus has left the premises.

Sources familiar with the probe’s pacing confirmed in late June that the writing of the report has begun.

But those who know best offered no confirmation as to whether the report will come this week.

Reached Thursday, Kenneth Frazier, chairman of the trustee’s Special Investigations Task Force, would only reiterate that the board’s goal is to have the Freeh findings in hand before the start of the new academic year.

Beyond that, Frazier said, “I can’t give you any comment.”

Trustees Chairman Karen Peetz did not respond to messages.

Attempts to reach several other board members were unsuccessful.

Anticipation builds

For Penn Staters, it makes for an anxious time.

The longtime defensive coordinator to legendary head football coach Joe Paterno, Sandusky was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys during a period of 14 years. Many of the incidents occurred at Penn State facilities, and some occurred while he was on the football team’s coaching staff.

The Freeh report has been promised to be a no-holds-barred look at how the scandal was allowed to fester for so long on the State College campus.

The report is supposed to examine who was responsible, what policies contributed to it and what corrective measures are needed to ensure that it never repeats.

A cache of emails recovered by the Freeh team reportedly shows Penn State administrators debating and deciding against alerting authorities about Sandusky being caught in the shower with a boy.

In the emails, first reported by CNN, Joe Paterno reportedly weighed in on the decision against calling authorities. CNN first reported the email discussions between then-Penn State President Graham Spanier, then-Vice President Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley.

According to CNN, the administrators mutually decided to handle internally a 2001 eyewitness account of Sandusky engaged in an indecent act with a boy inside a Penn State football building shower room. Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant and later an assistant football coach, reported the shower incident to the administrators.

An email suggests that decision was made after Curley “talked it over with Joe,” a reference that is widely assumed to be to Paterno.

The CNN report delivered a fresh public relations punch to Penn State and the Paterno family. A statement from the attorney for the Paterno family said the late coach never tried to compromise or block any investigation.

Some observers said the emails strengthened the existing perjury case against Curley and Schultz. Both are charged with lying to the grand jury in the Sandusky investigation.

Curley and Schultz also are charged with failing to report allegations of abuse. They maintain their innocence and are awaiting a trial in Dauphin County Court.

Spanier hasn’t been charged with a crime. But the emails fueled fresh speculation about future charges against Spanier and any others whom investigators believe aided and abetted a cover-up.

“Now we know they got this report. We know how seriously they took it. And we know they changed their minds on what to do about it. And we know it from their own words,” said John Burkoff, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School.

“They have essentially vouched for Mike McQueary in their e-mails to each other,” Burkoff said.

One thing that could have slowed the release of the Freeh report was the investigators’ desire not to work at cross-purposes with ongoing criminal probes.

But sources familiar with the state attorney general’s probe said last week that cooperation between Freeh’s team and state investigators has been “about as good as possible,” and they do not expect anything in the Freeh report to complicate their work going forward.

Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett said he is anxious to read Freeh’s report. As governor, Corbett holds a seat on Penn State’s board of trustees. He said the report could shape changes to the state’s open-records law relating to Penn State.

Lubrano won’t press board

Newly elected alumni trustee Anthony Lubrano has said he has a long-term goal of seeing the board issue a formal apology to Paterno’s family for the way he was fired.

But Lubrano said last week he will not be pressing the board for a formal apology to Paterno’s family this week.

Lubrano has called the trustees’ handling of Paterno after Sandusky’s arrest last November “the elephant in the room” for many of the alumni who resoundingly voted him into office this spring.

Days after Sandusky’s indictment in November, the Penn State board sacked Paterno and Spanier for what they have since termed a failure of leadership.

Paterno supporters, such as Lubrano, have considered that a hasty rush to judgment that was unfair to the coach who did so much for the university and its extended community.

He believes that is still the case given the results of a recent alumni association survey that showed 58 percent of respondents saying that most or all of the actions the board took with regard to Paterno were wrong. Only 11 percent said most or all of the trustees’ steps were right.

But for his first meeting as a voting board member, Lubrano said this week, he expects to be more of a listener.

“We intend to go into this meeting with our eyes open, our ears open and our mouths shut,” Lubrano said. “I am in conversation with board members to share my feelings on the subject, and to listen to their positions ... so that in September we’re in a better position to address the issue.”

By that time, the Freeh report should be a matter of public record. And that could also help to inform trustees’ next moves, if any, regarding the Paternos.

Last week, the Paterno family, through attorney Wick Sollers, challenged investigators to expedite the release of all emails and other information they have.

Larry Backer, chairman of the Penn State University Faculty Senate, called the mood in campus offices “expectant” regarding the Freeh report.

“There has been a big build up, and we all expect something useful and transparent, but clearly it is too early to tell on either score,” Backer said

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